1) WHAT DOES T-SHIRT SUGGEST WOULD HAPPEN TO COTTON FARMERS IN WEST AFRICA IF UNITED STATES SUBSIDIES TO COTTON FARMERS CEASED? WHY?

T-shirt states that even if this occurs, there is no certainty this makes a high impact gain for farmers in places like Africa or similar ones in other poor regions on the world, this is because we have learned that probably subsidies are not the priority for growers in such countries, we have read that when these subsidies are created, they probably does not arrive to the right people due to the lacks in the government and institutions

2) HOW AND IN WHAT WAYS(S) IS THE UNITED STATES ’ GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN COTTON FARMING?

The support of the government occurred by supporting the research in technology and supporting farmers with funding, technical, and business assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). We can found several evidences of how universities helped to technify the agriculture and especially when it comes related with cotton

Political support has been available too; a clear example is the Bracero program, creating a full scenario for the temporary workers including all aspects of the logistic to bring workers and ensure they leave the country as well

Historically speaking, government has been supporting risks using safety risk founds when the price fall dawn and at the same time trying to stabilizing commodity prices.

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One of the biggest talents of the cotton growers have been their inventive and ability to take advantage of any minimal situation, government looks like a good observer of this advantage, particularly speaking government has supported growers to figure out some profits in the scrap or garbage resulting of cotton

One of the biggest talents of the cotton growers have been their inventive and ability to take advantage of any minimal situation, government looks like a good observer of this advantage; government has also supported growers to figure out some profits in the garbage resulting of cotton

Another special involvement of the government in this sector is the 2002 Farm Bill and all its previous bills, this sector enjoys of privileges that other sector does not have like the Crop Disaster Program that reimburses farmers for losses due to unusual situations, in one hand Farm Loan Programs provided financing to growers who are unable to obtain credit from private sources, in the other hand, cotton farmers, enjoys of good percentage of federal support

Additionally to all these benefits I think the ACRE program is even more helpful for growers because it not only offers protection against falling prices but offers the choice to opt for protection against declines in revenues from falling crop yields, all this examples evidence a government that is very suitable to support this agro industry

3) HOW HAVE AMERICAN COTTON FARMERS SINCE THE BEGINNING AVOIDED THE LABOR MARKET?

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Slavery was early used to develop cotton production and is well recognized as the first “public policy” to protect cotton growers. Slavery showed a path to avoid the competitive labor market and enabled growers to cultivate larger acreage

The Bracero program in the last century is another example of avoiding competence and obtains a preferential work force

4) DO CHILDREN HAVE FOND OF WORKING ON COTTON FARMS? EXPLAIN .

I would say that rather than have fond, have been conformed and habituated to work on cotton farms due to a set of inappropriate circumstances. Growers found in children and women under desperation and no alternatives an extraordinary work force more easily to undergo sever bodily fatigue; children have been utilized by farmers on their own benefit

This sort of circumstances: desperation, lack of opportunities and poverty prepares the scenario to create a codependence between employers and workers; this is clearly not what can call a fair productive relationship

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5) T-SHIRT PAINTS A RATHER UNPLEASANT PICTURE OF WORKING CONDITIONS FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN IN BRITISH TEXTILE MILLS .  WHAT DID THESE WORKING CONDITIONS EVENTUALLY SECURE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS OF TEXTILE WORKERS AND THE BRITISH ECONOMY?

These working conditions created in America a pressure from the New England industrialists to legislate against the trend of south regions to lay their competitive advantage in their non fair working and hiring conditions.

This pressure eventually created the bases for today’s global labor standards, first in US, England, Europe and the rest of the world.

These revolutionary changes dropped the British competitive advantage placing the south as the main supplier of cotton in Asia. Even in our days this situation keeps present

6) WHY DOES CHINA POINT OUT THAT AMERICA ’S INDUSTRIAL MIGHT BEGAN WITH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATIONS?

Because of an act of industrial piracy performed by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1810 in a family travel to England

7) WHAT IS HUKOU , HOW DID IT COME ABOUT , AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THE CHINESE TEXTILE INDUSTRY AND THE WOMEN IN THESE FACTORIES .  WHY DOES THE US AFL-CIO SAY THAT HUKOU IS EXPLOITIVE AND CONSTITUTES AN UNFAIR TRADE ADVANTAGE FOR CHINA?

Literally speaking hukou is a place of household, is other ways is some kind of social organization, like race in America, class

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in England or caste in India, in terms of this book and china industry hukou is a competitive advantage

In practice, hukou it’s a segregation system to exploit workers, the hukou system has been analyzed from different experts and their analysis show important facts to evidently label this system as an inhuman labor system

The most of the workers in china are migrant workers in their own country with litigation to bring their families to the city of their working place, few of them have low chances of renting and when they can, those conditions are really inhuman and unhealthy

Migrant workers in china work more hours per week and they receive lower wages, it has all the characteristics of an over exploited working class created to avoid competitively

8) T-SHIRT SAYS THAT:  “OF ALL THE RALLYING CRIES OF THE ANTI-GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT , THE CALL TO STOP THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM IS BOTH THE SCARIEST AND THE MOST NONSENSICAL , ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES FROM RICH COUNTRY ACTIVISTS WHO OWE THEIR OWN PROSPERITY TO THE VERY RACE THEY WISH TO HALT FOR OTHERS”. EXPLAIN THROUGH COUNTRY EXAMPLES WHAT IS MEANT BY THIS QUOTE .

There are activist in England, Japan and US opposed to the anti globalization movement. All these countries have a wealth based in their multinational commerce activities and plenty support to the race to the bottom.

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9) T-SHIRT SAYS THAT: “IN A LARGER SENSE , HOWEVER , GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND LABOR ACTIVISM ARE NOT ENEMIES BUT ARE INSTEAD COOPERATORS , HOWEVER UNWITTING , IN IMPROVING HUMAN CONDITION .  AS MUCH AS THE CEOS WOULD LIKE TO SILENCE THE ACTIVISTS AND ACTIVISTS WOULD LIKE TO SILENCE THE CORPORATIONS , THE FACT IS THAT THE TWO SIDES NEED EACH OTHER….” EXPLAIN

I see a sharp entrepreneurial push from the corporations looking for better profits, lowering costs and obtain more for their wages, by the other hand, activists work confronting all aspects of those global operations, both are working in their side, but are they enemies at all? I don’t think so, I see a additional function in areas like health and safety legislation for the protection of workers, and ultimately the efforts have been focused to ergonomics

I agree with the point that this co existence can be used in a positive sense for several sides of the real world

10) WHAT DOES THE MFA STAND FOR?

Stands for “Multi Fiber Agreement”

11) WHAT MIGHT BE THE CAMBODIAN ADVANTAGE FOR MAINTAINING A NICHE IN THE PRODUCTION OF CLOTHING IN THE ABSENCE OF THE US REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT?

Probably none, once the regulatory environment gets released the opportunity of Camboya will be minimum against the

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China's potential to absorb any demand from U.S. or any other developed countries

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12) IN THE US REGULATORY REGIME , WHAT ARE THE QUOTAS AND WHAT AREA THE RESULTS OF THE QUOTAS?

The quotas are the limitation of volumes of imports from some countries, and literally speaking they are quantitative limits to imported goods.

The quotas have been coming, changing, leaving and coming again, trying to protect the domestic industries, textile in this case of analysis, however their real result is to became a delayer of the evolution of the industry, new skills and possibilities to move on from traditional jobs in textile mill, quotas have made longer the painful process to evolve to new markets for the last 60 years instead to really create competitiveness

13) HOW HAS US PROTECTIONISM INCREASED US COSTS AND BY HOW MUCH? (SELECT ONE MEASURE)

These costs have been estimated by several analysts with a common denominator: high scale cost impact. This cost goes from the economic cost to the consumer cost, additionally there is a regression tax effect and an “upgrading effect” (countries limited by quotas focus their volumes in high-end products instead of low-end products)

The book handles a wide variety of numerical amounts; perhaps one of the most important ones is the cost of protecting an apparel job, analyst like Hufbauer and Elliott speak of $138K USD per year for each job position preserved. This is much more than the average income for an apparel and textile worker.

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14) WHY DO MAJOR US APPAREL FIRMS OPPOSE THE US PROTECTIONISM?

Because there were two kinds of firms in the business, those who continued producing apparel in America, these firms faced difficulties to access to cheaper and more fashionable foreign fabrics, due to the difficulty created by the limitations to access those materials is that the companies declined to support trade restrictions

By the other hand, there were other firms that their strategy was focused to obtain clothing from outside of United States, their fundament to decide this was based in increased quality and pricing competitiveness of Asian producers

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15) WHY IS CONGRESS NOT UP TO THE TASK OF FORMULATING NATIONAL TRADE POLICY?

In synthesis: because members of the congress are protecting their election or reelection interests, they're putting their own interests above the interests that are suitable to the nation.

Congress men are taking populist posture even when they are not willing to sign a bill against free trade, ironically true

16) THE AUTHOR REFERS TO THE FINAL STAGE OF LIFE IN HER T-SHIRT AS THE POINT WHEN SHE THROWS IT INTO A SALVATION ARMY BIN .  SHE SAYS THAT “IT IS ONLY IN THIS FINAL STAGE OF LIFE THAT THE T-SHIRT WILL MEET A REAL MARKET .  WHAT MARKET IS THIS? HOW DOES IT FUNCTION? WHY DOES IT WORK? WHO ARE THE PARTIES IN THIS MARKET? 

The market of the castoffs is a controversial, complex and dynamic global industry. Between 1995 and 2007 this is industry exported nearly 9 billion pounds of used clothing

The U.S. textile recycling industry consists of thousands of small family businesses, they sources buying clothing from charity, pricing has its owns rules based in the origin and also seasonal criteria

Another side of this snowflake industry is related with organizations that because of their name can pick up the best of the castoffs; these organizations are Goodwill and the Salvation Army

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The industry has evolution from a sorting business to a mining operation, where the opportunity of gain is all about of sorting clothing carefully, but quickly, and allocates it where they can be sold at the best possible price

The parties involved are rich people seeing garbage in their clothing, charity associations, private companies and customers, these costumers could be countries in east Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America

17) WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE A COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN CAST OUT T-SHIRTS?

Because Americans buys more than any other country in the world, the constantly falling prices in clothing and helps to accelerate this trend and by consequence there is more raw materials for this industry of castoff. So is easy to anticipate that this industry will keep in growth

It looks like a big story to tell, consumers getting new stuff every year at better price because a trade barriers are disappearing, after all this classic industry cycle we found a market waiting to mining this product, find valuable items for other customers and industries. All this makes a great business scenario

This industry is a good example of comparative advantage because United States has the ability to obtain gains at the lowest opportunity cost than even China can achieve. Why?

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Because China has a limited tradition of charity and average income still too low to generate large volumes of castoffs

The comparative advantage of United States clothing recyclers lies in America’s wealth and consumerism (I will include an American tradition of giving and support)

18) ED STUBIN IS KEEPING A WATCHFUL EYE ON CHINA .  AT PRESENT CHINA IS NOT A REAL PLAYER IN THE CAST OFF CLOTHING MARKET .  HOW DOES STUBIN FEAR CHINA MAY ENTER THIS MARKET AND BECOME A MAJOR PLAYER?

Some interesting facts makes Ed to think about this possibility, the high commercial deficit of United States with China and the low amount of merchandise from US to China has caused a falling in shipping costs from US to China in first place, and second, a possible opening of Chinese borders in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) to used clothing could put China in serious competence

If this opening occurs with the current prices of shipping, Chinese companies could buy used clothing by bulk from major suppliers in US —Goodwill and the Salvation Army— and sort it in their EPZ at a fraction of the labor cost in America, similar what is actually happening in other industries where labor cost is an advantage for China

The complexity associated to this challenge is not too high, the possibility exists and there is evidence of a similar situation with sorting clothing in India right now. Probably Ed has a point and in the near future we can observe China in this market

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